John Sayers' Recording Studio Design Forum Archive

Anyone here build their own doors?

I'm curious, because real studio doors (e.g. Overly doors) are prohibitively expensive. The door to my studio is currently framed for two doors (two seperate frames), and I'd like to build the inner door myself.

I was thinking of using a plywood inner frame, with big cutouts on the inside to stuff insulation into. The outsides would be 1/2" MDF. There's a good article on the BBC site on door construction, but I was wondering if anyone here has built one...how well do they work, and what do you need to watch out for?

I'll need to read this thread a few times http://www.johnlsayers.com/phpBB2/viewt ... c&start=15

Thanks,

Kris

drfrankencopter wrote:Anyone here build their own doors?

Overlys and equivalent are so freakin' expensive because they perform kind of like two separate doors, even though they're only singles.

Since you're on separate frames, I wouldn't think you'd need to get doors like that. (Aren't you relieved?)

The only "build it yourself" door project I'm aware of is Paul Woodlock's "bunker" studio. Click here and scroll down to the Friday 19th November 2004 2:12am entry. You'll see photos of two doors -- he built both of them himself, and they're a marvel for sure!

Personally, I plan to use two 1 3/4" solid core doors, possibly beefed up with an extra layer of MDF or something. The doors will be a bit farther apart from each other than most of my walls will be, so that should (hopefully) make up the difference, if any.

Bottom line: seals will make or break the success of your door assemblies. Steve often points us to Zero International for seal kits.

You could spend a lot of time here searching for and reading about doors and seals... I'd recommend it, actually.

Thanks for the response.... I figured that the seal would be the 'make or break' detail.

Any idea of how much those zero solutions seal kits are? Also, do they come in different sizes (like 30" wide...I have a small door into the closet)?

Cheers,

Kris

The Zero kits run about $250 USD, depending on width, etc - someone posted a question a week or so ago about another brand, (quite a bit cheaper) I'm already an hour late for bed but maybe search on "seal" and look at the newest dozen results... STeve